European session: the dollar rose sharply

Data

00:00 New Zealand Bank holiday -

00:30 Australia Retail sales (MoM) December -0.1% +0.3% -0.2%

00:30 Australia Retail Sales Y/Y December +3.1%

08:00 United Kingdom Halifax house price index January +1.3% -0.2% -0.2%

08:00 United Kingdom Halifax house price index 3m Y/Y January -0.3% +1.6% +1.3%

11:00 Germany Factory Orders s.a. (MoM) December -1.8% +0.8% +0.8%

11:00 Germany Factory Orders n.s.a. (YoY) December -0.9% -1.2% -1.8%

The euro exchange rate fell sharply against the dollar, reaching with one-week low, as many market participants are waiting for the meeting of the European Central Bank, which will be held tomorrow.

The single currency fell against most of its 16 major currencies, against the fact that the Prime Minister of Spain, faced opposition calls to resign, and the expectations of investors report losses for 2008 and 2009 of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA.

The yen weakened to a 32-month low against the dollar on speculation that the new head of the Central Bank of Japan will increase monetary easing supporter.

Pound fluctuates within a narrow range against the dollar, which is associated with the published data today which showed that house prices in Britain registered in January its first annual increase since October 2010, increasing by 1.3%. However, despite a marked improvement, the value of this indicator was below analysts' expectations of 1.6%. Note also that on a monthly basis the cost of housing fell by 0.2%, in line with the fall, which was celebrated last month, and coincided with the estimates of experts. At the same time, Halifax noticed signs of improvement, which occurred in the housing market at the end of 2012 is likely to remain in the new year.

The Australian dollar fell against all but one of the 16 major currencies, as released today, retail sales were worse than analysts' expectations. It provokes new calls to reduce the interest rate RBA. Rate in December fell by 0.2% against November. This was heard reports the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while economists had expected retail sales to increase by 0.5%. A small increase of 0.1% in the fourth quarter was also significantly lower than the expected 0.5% growth.

EUR / USD: during the European session the pair fell to the low of $ 1.3498

GBP / USD: during the European session the pair fell to $ 1.5631, but later rose to the maximum session at $ 1.5677

USD / JPY: during the European session the pair is trading in a narrow range, demonstrating a slight decrease

An important event is the output from the Ivey PMI index of Canada in January, to be released at 15:00 GMT. At 21:45 GMT New Zealand will report on changes in the number of employed and the unemployment rate for the 4th quarter. Finish the day at 23:50 GMT Japan, announced a change in orders for machinery and equipment in December.